Some traditional electronic keyboards often have two wheels on their left hand side, generally known as a pitch bend and a modulation wheel. In a common implementation, the pitch bend wheel is spring-loaded to always return to its default center position, while the modulation wheel can be placed freely and will stay where it is placed. In this implementation, the pitch bend wheel controls a pitch of a played note in small values, allowing the simulation of continuous pitch adjustment. In this implementation, the modulation wheel is usually set to control a tremolo effect by default. However, on most electronic keyboards, a user can map any MIDI control to the modulation wheel.
Other traditional electronic keyboards include a pitch bend/modulation joystick that combines the functionality of a separate pitch bend wheel and modulation wheel. Such a joystick allows a user to pitch bend a currently playing note up in pitch by moving the joystick to a right position, down in pitch by moving the joystick to a left position, and apply modulation by moving the joystick into an upward position. The user can end a pitch bend and/or modulation by returning the joystick to a central default position.
Users skilled with pitch bend and modulation controllers can create very expressive and unique sounds that are very difficult to create without such controllers. However traditional pitch bend and modulation controllers contain limitations. For example, many traditional pitch bend controllers can only adjust a pitch within +/−2 half steps. Additionally, if a user wishes to use a pitch bend controller to adjust a pitch to a second known pitch, the user must rely on his or her own pitch detection skills to determine when the second pitch is reached.
Current touch screen devices, such as tablet computers, can execute programs to present a virtual music instrument keyboard that allows a user to play and create music and sounds. Users of such devices can benefit from a method and system for visually applying pitch bending to a note played on a virtual keyboard on a touch screen device. Users can benefit from a method and system for visually applying pitch bending that allows precise pitch bending from a displayed note on a virtual keyboard to any other displayed note. Users can further benefit from a method and system for applying modulation, or other sound effects, to the note played on the virtual keyboard on the touch screen device.